Racks for supporting articles



Jan. 17, 1961 L. M. J. BALFOUR 2,968,406

, RACKS FOR SUPPORTING ARTICLES Y Filed March 21, 1958 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 lmvewrok LIONEL M. J Bm-FouR ATTQQNEYS Jan. 17, 1961 L. M. J. BALFOUR RACKS FOR SUPPORTING ARTICLES 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed March 21, 1958 g @WO FIG. 4;

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krrokNEYs B! m W, zlazw United States Patent RACKS FOR SUPPORTING ARTICLES Lionel Maxwell Joachim Balfour, The Folly, Chavenage Lane, Tetbury, England Filed Mar. 21, 1958, Ser. No. 722,935

Claims priority, application Great Britain Mar. 25, 1957 1 Claim. (Cl. 211-60) This invention relates to racks for supporting articles, and is applicable, for example, to tool racks for use by carpenters, engineers and other craftsmen, to display racks for displaying articles such as tools, fountain pens, paint brushes, cutlery or the like, and to racks for supporting cutlery or other tableware during drying after Washing. An object of the invention is to provide a rack which will be simple in construction and capable of supporting tools or other articles of a considerable variety of types and sizes neatly and in a readily accessible manner.

A rack according to the present invention comprises a frame or like supporting structure carrying two spaced inclined grids or like perforated sheets lying one behind the other (and hereinafter referred to for convenience respectively as the front grid and the rear grid), the apertures in the grids being of such shape that the lowest point in the surface bounding each aperture in the front grid lies approximately in the same vertical plane as the highest point in the aperture immediately behind it in the rear grid.

Thus a tool, such as a screwdriver, chisel or the like, or other elongated article inserted through any pair of apertures which lies approximately one behind the other respectively in the front and rear grids will, by reason of the weight of the handle or other part projecting from the front grid, automatically take up an inclined position in which it bears at one point in its length upon the lowest part of the surface surrounding its aperture in the front grid and at another point in its length upon the highest point of the surface surrounding the aperture in the rear grid and is thereby located approximately in the vertical plane mentioned. A series of tools or other elongated articles, therefore, placed in the holder so as to engage the holes constituting one row in the front grid and the corresponding row in the rear grid with their handles or outer ends projecting in front of the front grid will tend automatically to take up definite positions parallel to and suitably spaced from one another.

The form of the apertures in the grids may vary but in a preferred construction each grid is provided with a series of approximately diamond-shaped apertures with the diagonals of each diamond-shaped aperture lying respectively in approximately horizontal planes and in approximately vertical planes.

Thus each grid may be formed by a sheet of expanded metal of known type in which the apertures are approximately diamond-shaped, or, for example, by a sheet of plastic or other tough non-metallic material consisting of intersecting interconnected strips arranged to provide diamond-shaped apertures between them.

In another example of the invention the grid may be formed from woven wire netting coated with a suitable plastic material such as polythene.

.example so that they lie nearer to one another at one pair of adjacent edges than at the opposite pair of adjacent edges, for example at their lower edges than at. their edges or vice versa, so as to be particularly suitable for holding longer articles in the apertures near their more Widely spaced edges and shorter articles in the apertures near their more closely spaced edges.

Moreover if desired a third sheet of material may in any case be fixed a short distance behind the rear grid and such that the ends of the tools or other articles will rest thereon and their penetration through the two grids thus be limited thereby.

The details of construction may vary considerably but two examples of the invention are shown by way of example in the accompanying drawings in which Figure l is a front elevation of one form of the invention,

Figure 2 is a side elevation of the construction shown in Figure l,

Figure 3 is an enlarged partial sectional side elevation Figure 4 is a front elevation of an alternative construction and Figure 5 is a side elevation of the construction shown in Figure 4.

In the construction shown in Figures 1, 2 and 3, the tool rack comprises a rectangular frame 1, supported on sides 1a for example of wood, metal or rigid plastic material, with a sheet of tough non metallic material 2 such as polythene for example, formed with diamond shaped holes to constitute a grid as shown extending and attached at its edges to the front face of the frame, and a second grid of similar material 3 also extending across and attached at its edges to the frame and positioned with relation to the first grid 2 in the manner indicated in Figure 2. In addition there is a third grid 4 of similar material to the grids 2 and 3 attached along its edges to the rear face of the frame 1 and positioned in relation to the other grids in the manner indicated in Figure 2.

As will be seen, the grids 2 and 3 lie in planes inclined to each other and to the plane in which the grid 4 lies. Moreover the grids 2, 3 and 4 are arranged so that the diamond shaped apertures in the grids when viewed in a direction normal to the plane of the frame 1 as a whole are aligned with one another.

Thus the highest point in any diamond shaped aperture in the grid 3 or grid 4 lies in the same vertical plane normal to the plane of the frame 1 as does the lowest point in the diamond shaped aperture immediately in front of it.

Thus hand tools inserted through apertures in two of the grids will tend to be aligned owing to the parts of the tools which engage the two grids tending automatically to locate themselves in the angles of the diamond shaped holes as indicated at 5 in Figure 3.

In the alternative construction shown in Figures 4 and 5, the tool holder or rack also comprises a rectangular frame 6 which has extending across it and secured thereto at their edges grids 7, 8 and 9 each of the same general form as the grids 2, 3 and 4 in the construction shown in Figures 1, 2 and 3, the grids 7, 8 and 9 being located in relation to the frame 6 and to each other in the manner indicated in Figure 5. In this construction the frame 6 is carried on trunnions It) on a support indicated generally at 11, the trunnions 10 be ing screwthreaded at their ends and provided with locking nuts 12 of the wing nut type so that the angle of the frame 6 can be adjusted to suit requirements and the frame locked in any desired adjusted position.

It will be understood that in the constructions shown, the grids 2, 3 and 4 and 7, S and 9 or any of them, instead of being formed entirely of tough plastic material, might be formed by sheets of expanded metal or by woven wire netting or the equivalent and in each case either coated or not with a suitable plastic material such as polythene.

It will also be understood that the means by which the grids 2, 3 and 4 or 7, 8 and 9 are attached to the frame 1 or 6 may vary and will normally be of well-known type. Thus if the frame be of wood, the grids might be attached by screws and a clamping frame as shown or by staples, or nails while if it be of metal or rigid plastic material the grids might be attached by screws or by some other suitable form of clamping means.

What I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

A holder for elongated tools comprising two relatively spaced front and rear grids of multiperforated sheet material having similar pluralities of perforations, means supporting said grids in substantially parallel vertically inclined planes, each perforation of said front grid having downwardly converging rectilinear side edges defining a downwardly directed apex, each perforation of said rear grid having upwardly converging side edges defining an upwardly directed apex in a common vertical plane with and at approximately the horizontal level of an apex of the front grid, said plane extending normally to said front grid, each said perforation being of substantially larger size than the cross section of the tool portion to be received therein.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS v ew; net-l 

